The present invention relates to a cut and paste document image editing device.
Various electronic filing apparatuses have been recently developed. In such a filing apparatus, document image information is stored in a memory in the form of digital information. The information is displayed on a display device or is output as a hard copy, as needed. The amount of information is enormously large, and a large-capacity memory is required to allow handling of all information by a filing apparatus. In fact, since however, only a small amount of information is valuable, it is therefore very important to determine the information which is valuable. However, efficient information retrieval is generally difficult. In view of this, it is very important that necessary information be filed in a format which allows easy access.
According to conventional information arrangement works, desired image portions are manually cut from a plurality of documents, and the partial images are pasted on a single pasteboard. Pasteboards having such partial images pasted thereon are then filed.
In a conventional electronic filing apparatus, an editing instruction mark is directly depicted on a document or a special sheet. The editing instruction mark is read by a facsimile system, and an image region required for editing is cut out from the document. With this method, the editor must designate a cutting region and a pasting region. When such regions are directly designated on the document, the document is contaminated.
A document filing apparatus using an optical disk memory technique has been recently proposed. In this apparatus, a document for image cutting and a pasteboard for pasting the cut partial image thereon are displayed on a CRT. The cutting and pasting regions are designated with a pointing device such as a truck ball, a light pen or a mouse. With this apparatus, the document image to be cut and the pasteboard image are simultaneously displayed on a CRT display, and image editing between the document image and the pasteboard image is performed. Therefore, it is difficult to rearrange partial images cut from more than one document into a single document. In this case, it is particularly difficult to effectively lay out partial images cut from more than one document. Further, the modification of layout is also difficult. A problem remains in the flexibility in editing procedures.
A copending U.S., patent application Ser. No. 454,110 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,183) entitled "IMAGE EDITING APPARATUS", filed on Dec. 28, 1982 and assigned to the same assignee as this application discloses an editing apparatus for cutting necessary partial images from a plurality of documents sequentially displayed on a CRT screen and for pasting the cut partial images on a single pasteboard. In this editing apparatus, a plurality of basic pasting patterns are programmed in advance. It is then decided which pattern can be adopted for the partial images. The partial images are enlarged or reduced as required, and automatically pasted in accordance with a pasting pattern.